Sheldon Keefe addressed the media after his team’s 8-4 loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday night, dropping the Leafs’ record to 25-16-6 on the season.
On what he takes away from a blowout loss in which the team was down 7-1 halfway through the game:
You take it as what it is, which is a good slap in the face and a good reminder of how you can’t play if we have any intention at all of being a successful team. A big step backward here today for us defensively. Coming out of that Winnipeg game, while we were pretty poor offensively, I thought we did a pretty good job defensively against their best players, especially. We knew that was going to be key again here today. Clearly, we just weren’t even close.
On why the team gave up so many odd-man rushes:
Today, you mean? I don’t think it has been an issue. We just finished playing against a Winnipeg team that is very dynamic offensively just like these guys and we gave them nothing. We were hoping to build upon that, but today it was a problem for us.
A lot of is originating in the offensive zone. The first one, we get a bad bounce. We had numbers above the puck and we were in a pretty good spot. Kerfoot was tracking it and it gets kind of a funny bounce on him and we lose positioning there.
The others — a soft turnover, a soft play on the puck on one. It was a combination of different things. But I don’t think it has necessarily been a big issue for us as a team other than today.
On whether there is any concern about Frederik Andersen’s play and if fatigue could be a factor:
I don’t think fatigue is an issue. We’ve done a pretty good job of managing that here of late. In fact, when his workload was heavier, he was playing better and his numbers were better. Maybe it is something the other way, perhaps, that we have to look at here to get him in a better rhythm and get him going.
Everybody goes through it — players go through it, goalies go through it. He is a great goaltender and he is going to respond greatly.
On the status of Morgan Rielly, who was in pain after taking a shot to the foot:
I haven’t heard anything. I didn’t hear anything after it, either. I think he is fine.
On what he wants to see from the team in the three games at home before the All-Star break:
We will start with just the first one. We need to bounce back. That is three in a row now where we haven’t gotten the result we wanted and today is the ugliest one of all. It is a good slapping that way. We get a chance to respond and we are going to have to do that. We are showing here that we haven’t been able to find a level of consistency that we are happy with. We’ve got a chance here now with three home games to finish it off before the break, so we have to get it together.
